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authoratmidnight · 5 years

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You know, I think the one thing that really, baffles me, about the hate that Ryoken gets (both just the character and in relation to being shipped with, anyone but esp the protag) is that the one main argument I see for why he’s a “bad person” is due to his actions in season 1 the consequences of them had he succeeded.

But like, since WHEN has ‘this character did bad things and hurt/almost hurt innocent people’ ever stopped anyone from liking villains/antagonist in this series or stopped them from shipping them with the protagonist/other characters.

Like, this argument could be used against TONS of different YGO characters(including many of the rival type characters) that I see people drooling over all the time.

Case in point a non comprehensive list (and before anyone thinks I’m trying to say you can’t like these characters, I’m not. In fact *I* like a number of these characters) Also heads up for minor spoilers for all the series since a number of antagonists/villains made this list:

Seto Kaiba: In the manga he was the first villain/antagonist and actually tried to straight up MURDER Yugi and his friends. In the anime this wasn’t present (save for the Toei anime) however he was still, at the very least, a bully who would verbally tear down anyone he saw as ‘beneath him’ (so everyone) and was condescending and belittling and tried to blow up the tower the Battle City finals were in, while people were still in it! We call that manslaughter folks.

Pegasus: Multiple counts of kidnapping and soul stealing

Yami Malik: Killed his own father, attempted murder of Rishid as well as the rest of the cast.

Yami Bakura/Thief King Bakura: The main/end game antagonist of the series. Also in the manga he murdered Pegasus.

Dartz and his Orichalcos group: Mind control, kidnapping, stealing souls, trying to destroy the world. Typical villain fare. Also Dartz fucked up Valon, Rafael and Amelda’s lives and caused many, many deaths.

Takuma Saiou: Literally started a cult and tried to destroy the world (granted he gets a slight pass cause he was being possessed)

Judai Yuki: Commits multiple acts of mass murder as a tyrant king.

Yubel: Possesses multiple people, kidnaps Johan, tries to destroy multiple worlds at once by fusing them together, hurt Judai by hurting his friends.

Jack Atlas: Stole his best friend’s D-Wheel and best card and leaves him and a child out to drown in the ocean as he fucks off to The City.

Kiryu: Nearly killed a man. Joined the Dark Signers and tried to destroy the world.

Placido/Jose/Lucciano/Aporia: The main antagonists of the last half of the series. Attempt to kill various members of the cast at various points in time and their end goal involves the total annihilation of Neo Domino(kill millions/billions to save the world,allegedly). Lucciano nearly kills Rua in their first fight when he’s flung off a bridge and as Aporia attempts to kill Rua, Ruka and Jack during the final arc and actually succeeds causing the death of one of them (for a short time anyways, they get better)

Paradox: Literally travelled back in time to murder Pegasus and also caused the deaths of a number of innocent bystanders in the process.

Any of the Arclight siblings (Chris/Thomas/Michal): Thomas is arguably the worst of them in terms of what he did but they all at various points do pretty awful things (mainly at the behest of their dad). Chris kidnapped Haruto, Thomas was responsible for what happened to Rio, Michal killed Astral (temporarily)

Kaito: Ran around stealing people’s souls to obtain their Numbers cards and just left their soulless bodies lying around.

Any of the Barian Emperors: Like, pick on. Either as a Barian or in their first life they probably did bad things (or in both lives in Vector’s case, who committed mass murder by way of slaughtering his entire country in his past life as well as turning his own allies into puppets/trying to kill them in his Barian life)

Don Thousand: The main villain of the whole damn series who wants to destroy the Astral World, and Earth, basically all life. Also screwed over the lives of the Barian Emperors and his influence on them also indirectly caused the deaths of MILLIONS.

Yuri: Responsible for multiple kidnappings and cardings of innocent people, all things he did very willingly and remorselessly.

Actually just about anyone from Academia’s side of things at some point in time.

Arc V Kaito: Literally went around carding anyone who stood in his way, friend or foe.

Zarc: Again, the end game big bad who literally DID destroy the world, then came together and tried to do it again

Like, I have seen love (and in some cases lust) for literally ALL of these characters (some more than others) and some of them have MASSIVE shipping fan bases and pretty much all these characters were either villains or antagonists at some point in the story. But I rarely-if at all in some cases-see people going ‘you only like X because they’re hot’ or ‘X did all these awful things you shouldn’t like him’ about these characters. And make no mistake, people do like some of these characters cause they think they’re attractive (also, what’s wrong with that anyways? I’m shallow enough to admit I like some characters simply cause they’re really pretty).

Interestingly, Ryoken, esp in the first season, fits the definition for an anti-villain (like the opposite of an anti-hero) more than he does just straight villain (at least once we get context for his actions)

‘...a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately villainous. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there are evil.’

-TVTropes

Which is, basically what S1 Ryoken was doing, though mostly at the whims of his father. He wanted to destroy the Ignis in order to save humanity, it’s just when the first few attempts failed, he went along with his father’s final, last ditch effort to deal with them which was the Tower of Hanoi (and make no mistake, the Tower was 100% Dr. Kogami’s idea, Ryoken went along with it cause, family loyalty). The results might kill a great number of people, but if it destroyed the Ignis then it would ultimately save even more in the long run. A heroic goal (saving humanity) with a not so heroic way of getting there (nuking the internet and potentially causing a massive loss of life in the process).

I’m not saying you have to like him, god knows I dislike a number a characters, including some of the ones mentioned here, but like, it just feels like a weird double standard to use these arguments against Ryoken, but never on any of these other characters. Or at least not to the same extent that they’re used on him.

And this is just YuGiOh characters. I can 100% guarantee you that there are characters in other series that have far worse things than Ryoken ever did that are massively loved/praised by their fandoms (and also got redemption arcs). Vegeta is the first one to come to mind (and he *actually* killed people).

#yugioh #long post #vrains #some salt #at least he doesn't *actually* have blood on his hands does seem to feel remorse for his actions #can't say that about some of the ppl I listed

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Black Lightning: The Consistent Villainy of Tobias Whale

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This Black Lightning article contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 4, Episode 12.

Jefferson Pierce is dead. Or so it seems, as we turn the page on Black Lightning: The Book of Resurrection: Chapter One: Crossroads. Tobias Whale is on the precipice of achieving everything he has worked for. His mayoral win was supposed to secure his seat on the Shadow Board, but that offer was rescinded after his failure to completely immobilize Freeland’s metas. But Tobias is always one step ahead, and he sends an invisible assassin—powered up with meta boosters—to kill the apparent head, then takes his place, dubbing himself King. Tobias has been playing a very long game, and he is reaping the fruits of his labor. And if he’s to be believed, he’s finally killed his nemesis.

Tobias is not just a violent criminal who perpetually exploits and endangers Freeland, he is also a Black man who is anti-Black—dangerous as hell. He has never been likable, and Black Lightning has not spent a single second attempting to justify his malevolence, or soften it. That consistency pays off here, because he is a true villain. He can’t win! Not just because we want the heroes to, but because he is so. goddamn. awful. He is irredeemable. Writers on the whole seem obsessed with redemption, but like in real life, there is no ctrl+z for past behavior. Some people are just… bad. And as much as I hate that man—and I hate him deeply—it’s exciting to watch an antagonist who enjoys being the bad guy, with no hesitation, and no guilt.

But the Pierces never stay down. Even without their powers, Grace and Anissa take down Monovista’s—and Tobias’—meta gene harvesting plant, likely putting a pause on Tobias’ plan to expand his range outside of Freeland. This is very On Brand for Anissa, and I love that she continues to do her, regardless of whether she has powers. Her consistency is also something I greatly appreciate. I only wish she and Grace had been able to be a team for a longer time. Still, I enjoy that we got to watch their relationship grow and flourish. Speaking of growth, JJ finally feels solidified as a hero. She wants to quit after Uriah is killed, but her dad reminds her of why she is needed. He puts faith in her, and she rises to that by capturing Red, and showing Freeland who Chief Lopez really is—an anti-meta bigot.

When JJ exposes the Chief’s metaphobia, Lopez reacts hysterically, hurrying to use a meta-booster on herself. All we know about Lopez is that she is a woman who feels pressured by that fact to do the absolute most in her position as Chief. And she hates metas to an unhealthy extent. Her entire tenure on the show has been disliking metas, trying to annihilate them all, and trying to capture Lightning, by hook or by crook. She hasn’t tried to take down the Kobra Cartel or the 100s, or do literally anything else the leader of a law enforcement agency should do in a city overrun with gang violence— and one that has just narrowly survived a military siege. Lopez has given us nothing this season, and her inclusion feels like a choice that was made before the powers that be knew this was the end. On the other hand, one of Black Lightning’s biggest weaknesses is misutilization of their cast. Lala disappeared multiple times over the seasons, and characters just kind of mosey off-screen.

This is also evident with Ishmael who… aint shit? It’s hard to say whether this being the final season necessitated changes to his story, or if he was always going to come to Freeland and give us the bare minimum. I did enjoy his scraps but, you cannot say this man killed like 97 metas and is trying out for the League of Assassins and have him only manage to slightly kill one meta out of the six he was set upon. LMFAO. I really tried to see it for him, but he couldn’t take out Jefferson when mans was having a blackout. He left his first four jobs unfinished, and still got paid to go after Khalil and Looker. I have never seen a Black man fail up like this, it was honestly a treat. But playing him up as a late-game Boss then having him lose all but the very first fight is… hilarious, actually. I’m just glad at least one of the new additions, Detective Shakur in this case, is getting to do a little bit more than slightly aggravate the Pierce family.

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I am glad that Gambi has brought Lauren into the fold, even if their relationship feels… shallow. I understand the choice to make her someone from his past, it skips the preamble. But, a relationship that is formed off-screen, and that we only see glimpses of throughout the season, is not easy to connect with. Still, I am rooting for them because Gambi deserves… something. It was too late in the show to fully explore new relationships, but I’m all for happy endings wherever we can get them. I am going into the season finale feeling safe, which isn’t the most exciting place to be. I don’t want Jeff to be dead. I don’t think death is the only, or even the best way to say goodbye to a series. But the finale should make a strong statement one way or the other. The Pierces have excelled against increasingly worse odds, and their triumph is more or less assured. I want BlackLightning to end on a high note, and I want to come away from it feeling full. Here’s hoping.

The post Black Lightning: The Consistent Villainy of Tobias Whale appeared first on Den of Geek.

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knightofbalance-13 · 7 years

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http://kaedeichinose.tumblr.com/post/155455868286/everything-in-rwby-is-controlled-by-men-either

... @mageknight14 , You didn’t mix in my secret stash did you?

Everything in RWBY is controlled by men, either actively or passively, and here’s a huge bullet point list elaborating on how shitty the agency of female characters is in a show billed as female driven with “””strong””” female characters.

As we will see, they actually don’t and this person is just complaining without focus.

And again: just because you have a strong female cast doesn’t mean you have to ignore the male cast. In fact: RWBY is unique in that it has an equally strong male cast, making a TRUE progressive show...and sadly, RWBY is not SUPPOSE to be progressive so that's pathetic.

It’s mostly for my benefit because I’ve been stewing on this shit for a while now but I’ll post it in the rwde tag in case anyone else wants to fully absorb this train wreck but mostly it boils down to: let the women lead their own lives

Ah huh, see here’s the thing: the gusy are just as heavily defined by the woman as vice versa. You’ll latter down the line:

Ruby: No female role models outside of her sister, but the farthest Yang’s seemed to have influenced her life is being a replacement mom which is icky and all of her skills come from her male mentor(s) or just straight magic

Being motherly is “icky?” Lady, I once saw a mother character whoop superhuman ass by sowing a rotting touch girl into concrete, cut through human-sized vines with garden trimmers and once tackled a giant with a chainsaw all to protect her kid. That kid happen to be her son and looked up to and loved his mother very much to the point 90% of his personality seems to come from her.

Not to mention her father Taiyang is completely defined by his children and losing his lovers, characters in their own right independent from him, and he only really interacts with his kids. His defining character trait is that he is the main character’s father. Next.

Weiss: Mom’s not even lucid, no other females in her life sans winter who still acts cold and distant despite the shared life experiences, Weiss is pushed around and treated like “women should be seen, not heard” manner not only by her father but by most people around her which is weird as remnant is “all inclusive” so that ideology shouldnt even exist

“All inclusive” implies Fanaus too dumbass. And even OUR society has shit like this so don’t go blaming Remannt for that.

Also: Jacques and Whitely are clearly treated as Villians in that regard and that they are massively wrong and while WInter is distant somewhat, she has been the only person to give Weiss solid advice and is Weiss’ goal for Volume 5. So that doesn’t work.

And again, we have a male too: Whitely has no personality outside of hating his sister and being a little bitch and is just an obstacle for Weiss to overcome. He has no agency of his own unlike Weiss who does.

Blake: Her mom’s kind but ultimately all her skills and passion come from the influence of her male ex-partner. Kali doesn’t even seem to be as high up in the chain as Ghira and even now most of Blake’s reconciliation seems to be happening with her dad

Okay...and? SO Blake takes after her dad: so what? Ghira and Kali are used as a parallel to Blake and Sun clearly seeing as Kali acts more like Sun than Blake so it’s obviously a counterpart thing.

Again, we have Sun who has no character outside of Blake, is completely debouted to her for no reason, has put up with a lot of crap from her and revolves entirely around her. If he were a girl it would be so offensive to you. But it’s a guy so no problem here!

Yang: Again, no female role models. Seems to have been forced to take over parenting once Tai Yang shut down for an nondescript period of time. Current season is implying her skills came from her father mentoring her.

Again: What’s the problem with Taiyang mentoring her? She matched Taiyang hand to hand and the guy’s a freaking full fledged Huntsman: She’s being empowered by being a better fighter than her dad.

And isn’t Yang pulling herself together while her full grown father couldn’t a sigh of strength? If that isn’t strong Idon’t know what is.

The entirety of JNPR: Nora and Pyrrha scarcely even fucking talk to each other or any other female characters, neither of them have any women in their life nor does Ren. Jaune’s big family honor passed from his grand father to his dad to him, mother and sisters mentioned in passing to justify Jaune doing something “””girly”””. I’m not even going to fucking touch on Pyrrha’s existance being entirely tied to Jaune because you’ve probably heard that a million times already.

1. Gender bender: it’s more that the chaarcetrs representing guys (Nora and Pyrrha) are connected to the gril representatives (Jaune and Ren.)

2. It was never passed down to Jaune: he took it for himself. Not to mention Jaune himself was entirely reliant on Pyrrha and Ruby for character development meaning he’s just as dependant as you say Pyrrha is. In afct the instant Pyrrha dies, Jaune becomes a supporting character to Ruby. He literally drops down a peg.

3. Pyrrha’s a mentor character who is entirely reliant on her underling for support, cares very much about him and is killed for his skae? Gee, you just described KAMINA, the manly man of TTGL. In fact, Pyrrha is a stronger character than Kamina seeing as she has her own strength, gets screentiem outside of Jaune and has an arc to herself all unlike Kamina. And Kamina himself was based off a female (Kazumi Amano), was replaced by a female (Nia Tepplin) and is succeded by a female (Mako Makanchou) so the male gender is the one being trampled on here.

Emerald and cinder and cinder and salem are the only fucking female-female role model/mentor relationships in the fucking show and theyre all main antagonists and the villain club still managed to be a sausage fest

Yeah! ... And Weiss and Winter ... And Jaune would be worthless without Pyrrha...and Nora saved Ren’s like twice and taught him to calm the fuck down...And Ruby;s strength is always attributed to her mother...And Gynda’s a teacher so she HAD to have mentored them...

Also: That’s two mentors in the series. Can we get the male and male mentors....There’s only one?....Mercury and his abusive dad...who he killed...and hates...Yep.

Cinder: Accomplished her goal (kind of) but got punished for it (granted shes the villain) but the punishment was muting and crippling the single most powerful woman in the show to date sans Salem

Ozpin: Strongest Guy in the show: Gets his ass handed to him by Cinder in such a manner that she was barely affected.

Salem: [disney villain laughing.mp4]

Ozpin: [Dumbledore getting his ass handed to him by Heromine.jpg]

Emerald: she idolizes cinder but the relationship is demonstrably unhealthy, the only real female-female mentor relationship on the show and its an unhealthy one between two villains

Weiss and Winter, Yang and Ruby, Glynda and Pyrrha + every female student...

Glynda: went from being Ozpin’s right hand to literally inconsequential, the men are off saving the world and protecting ozpin’s vision and she’s literally been left to clean all on her own. Pick up a hammer and nails, port and oobleck you lazy fucks

Port: “We all need some rest”

Implying they’re helping Glynda with Glynda being the spearhead.

Penny: both creators and trainers/parents are male (unfortunately not i nthat way), she was on her way to having a good relationship with ruby only shes fucking dead to further the plot so dang i guess

That’s baised againt heterosexuals.

And she’s also the strongest non-grownup in the show, far outclassing Sun who is the strongest teen male.

The maidens: despite being the most powerful women in the fucking world (supposedly) theyre controlled and monitored and protected by a group largely consisting of men and are being successfully hunted down by another group largely consisting of men, not to mention their powers are jokes (i mean amber got taken down by two malnourished kids and cinder like what) and their one weakness is the silver eye power, which seems to be a gender neutral power

Likely so no one in the group can be temted to take the power for themselves.

Amber was said to be cocky and inexperienced Vs. three experienced fighters. Also once Cinder got the power, she curbstomped the strngest male in the show, canonically killing him.

Kali: easily best mom but seems pretty hands off in blake’s life, also notable that while her husband is an ex-WF leader and goes to meetings she just kind of sat there smiling while her husband went to do the leader junk

She also forced Blake to confront her father about leaving, called Blake out for not talking about Team RWBY and is the female counterpart to Sun, who is even less active.

Ms.Schnee: doesnt even have a FUCKING NAME despite the fact that SHE’S THE SCHNEE. mostly feels like an after thought in weiss’ narrative, shit mom

Neither does Pyrrha’s dad and he’s not evenmentioned.

Also: It’s called focusing on what is needed. And can you blame here? here husband and son are complete jackasses.

Summer: Despite being a huge influence on multiple characters the most we know of this legendary warrior is that she was a good mom and a good wife. thats it

Sis said to be a powerful Huntsman from yang and has Taiyanga and Qrow wrapped around her dead finger. Also, she raised a child that wasn’t ehrs with such love and kindness Yang didn’t even know they weren’t related. Again, THAT is strength. She’s also the reason why Ruby is so strong so she’s the source of power for the main character.

Neon: unnecessary stereotypical cattiness but maybe thats just me being annoyed she called yang fat despite them having the same body type

Based off Nyan Cat, meme meant to annoy and is intergral to the team stardgey with her partner Flynt.

Not a single world leader we’ve been introduced to has been female (unless you count salem but, again, the main antagonist). No female head masters, no females in politics, no female WF leaders (kali could potentially be one but that hasnt been implied)

The world leaders are either misguided at best (Ozpin) of fucking cowards at worst (Leo) and the only WF leader we’ve seen is the racist, geocidal son of a bitch Adam so they are actually higher up than the guys.

the gods are literally just a gender flipped version of luna and celestia despite the fact theyre magic gods who dont even need gender fuck off

... I have no idea what they are saying: the brother’s are a representation of creation and destruction: simple as that.

Meanwhile: Male characters are eiteh entirely reliant on females for power and/or development (Taiyang, Jaune, Ren), are treated as assholes who aren’t even true villains (Jacques Schnee, Whitely Schnee, Adam Tauras), serve under women who show favor to women (Tyrian, Watts, Hazel, Torchwick), act as people who can only help women (Port and oobleck) ect.

Ruby is still self driven and considered better than Jaune.

Weiss is treated as the one good person ina family of shit head males/

Blake is treated as right whereas her male counterpart is treazted as wrong.

Yang is treated as stronger tan her father, a full fledged Hunstamn.

Nora restraisn Ren and has the far more standout personality that can work on it’s own.

Pyrrha is the reason behind Jaune’s development.

ect.

Both genders rely on each other: Strength in unity. Theme of the show. Not everything is fucking sexist.

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